Classes and damage

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[clearstream]

I’m an expert in data analysis (it’s literally my day job), and I think people are making assumptions and conclusions about things without the data actually proving it. Innthe industry, we have a saying: garbage in, garbage out. I.e, if you’re starting with incomplete or bad data, no method of analysis will result in a sound conclusion.

So if the DDB team is making a claim that X class is popular IN GENERAL, while not factoring in those people who don’t use DDB, or only use it for chargen, then they are starting with fundamentally flawed data. I suspect they are giving that conclusion based on a much narrower scope, like “among players who use DDB to create and play their characters in the DDB toolset while playing, this is the results.”

So I would strongly caution anyone taking that narrow scope and assuming it applies to a much larger scenario.

Exactly. I wasn't proposing the conclusion that they haven't factored that in. I work with data, although I'm not an expert, and it seems plausible to me that one could find markers of "played characters" in the data set. So I'm more asking if anyone knows if they have in fact done that?

If not, I think that the count of a given race or class could be more indicative of curiousity about possible builds, than played characters.

 

[Satyrn]

The druid is the least popular and played, as always.

Well, this data can't be right. Two of the six characters in the campaign I'm playing in have been druids. There have been more druids than any other class.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’m an expert in data analysis (it’s literally my day job), and I think people are making assumptions and conclusions about things without the data actually proving it. Innthe industry, we have a saying: garbage in, garbage out. I.e, if you’re starting with incomplete or bad data, no method of analysis will result in a sound conclusion.

So if the DDB team is making a claim that X class is popular IN GENERAL, while not factoring in those people who don’t use DDB, or only use it for chargen, then they are starting with fundamentally flawed data. I suspect they are giving that conclusion based on a much narrower scope, like “among players who use DDB to create and play their characters in the DDB toolset while playing, this is the results.”

So I would strongly caution anyone taking that narrow scope and assuming it applies to a much larger scenario.

IIRC, the head of the DDB team’s job prior to launching DDB was also data analysis.

And they’ve gone out of their way Lin the streams where they talk user data to make sure viewers understand what you just explained.

That said, their user base is plenty large enough to be used to indicate probable general trends. There is no evidence that users who enjoy using character builders and digital character sheets like different player options than those who don’t, to any degree greater than any other arbitrary categorization we could come up with, and wotc statements about player trends tend to match up with DDB data, which suggests that “people who play 5e” tend to have the same preferences as “people who use DDB”.

Exactly. I wasn't proposing the conclusion that they haven't factored that in. I work with data, although I'm not an expert, and it seems plausible to me that one could find markers of "played characters" in the data set. So I'm more asking if anyone knows if they have in fact done that?.

In case it was missed earlier, yes. They have. They’ve talked about it in several of the monthly update streams.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

In the industry, we have a saying: garbage in, garbage out. I.e, if you’re starting with incomplete or bad data, no method of analysis will result in a sound conclusion.

I've never used DDB. Is it even possible for them to consider homebrew content? Or is all of that data being ignored by default, since there's no way for them to accept it?

 

[Mistwell]

I've never used DDB. Is it even possible for them to consider homebrew content? Or is all of that data being ignored by default, since there's no way for them to accept it?

Yes, it accepts houserules. I imagine WOTC is paying close attention to the most common house rules.

 

[FrogReaver]

How would they know if you play it? It's a PDF you can print out. They're not in your house, watching you play

Presumably they would look to see if a certain character has been periodically leveled up with at least a few days between each level up.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yes, it accepts houserules. I imagine WOTC is paying close attention to the most common house rules.

Yeah, I’ve got all my homebrew stuff added in. The system for homebrew is pretty impressive, actually.